Some like Sunny Singh’s iconic tweet was pure thrill to see someone go down (see image of twitter conversation below). But more than Sunny Singh’s tweet, were all the others who retweeted and favorited this tweet (see slide-show above).

Between the tweeter and the retweeter, more than 100,000 probably saw this one message alone. Now multiply, such a chain into thousands, and that will explain the hysteria around Sunil Tripathi hoax that built up in a matter of hours – and died in a matter of minutes.

Many times a retweet is done to share messages that the user does not agree, approve or endorse. Yet these 27 retweets of Sunny Singh’s infamous message, calls for a look at the judgement of these users. Should such a tweets be forwarded without some kind of qualification?

Facebook and Twitter have been fnded by the US Treasury department through the Federal Reserve, via its various franchisee banks. | Cartoon By Bob Englehart, The Hartford Courant – 5/23/2012 12:00:00 AM; souce & courtesy – msnbc.com

Justice & Freedom

Encroachments on media and individual freedom has occupied minds across the world.

Even in India.

Is it time to do some quantitative numbers on how governments across the world are trying to control social media.

Vikram Buddhi languishes in an American prison because he said George Bush murdabad (meaning Death to George Bush) on the internet – in support of Iraqi Muslims. Hardly any Indians have supported Vikram Buddhi even now after being in prison for nearly 5 years now.

Rocking in a Free World

More than 2 crore people (20 million) face the American Justice system each year. With more than 2 crore people (20 million) in either prison, on parole, probation or facing prosecution.

Nearly a 100 countries in the world have a population that is lesser than the number of US citizens in prison, on parole or probation, or under prosecution by the State.

Every 11th person of working age in the US is either in prison, parole, probation or being prosecuted for some offence caused to the State.Every 11th person of working age in the US is either in prison, parole, probation or being prosecuted for some offence caused to the State.

Social Media In The Free World

Most people are not aware that secular Great Britain, has prosecuted, fined, imprisoned nearly 5,000 people in the last three years for making ‘insensitive’ comments on social media.

A two-and-a-half year legal battle over a “joke” posted on Twitter that landed its author with a criminal record returns to the high court on Wednesday in front of the most senior judge in England and Wales.

Paul Chambers, an unemployed former trainee accountant, is appealing against his conviction for tweeting that he would blow up Doncaster’s Robin Hood airport unless it reopened so he could fly to see his new girlfriend.

Lord Judge, Mr Justice Owen and Mr Justice Griffith Williams. It brings the number of judges and magistrates who have considered Chambers’ case up to nine, spread over seven days in court since his tweet on 6 January 2010.

During snowy weather, Doncaster’s Robin Hood airport had closed, threatening to derail Chambers’ plans to fly to Belfast to meet Sarah Tonner, a woman he had met on Twitter. He tweeted on the publicly accessible feed: “Crap! Robin Hood airport is closed. You’ve got a week and a bit to get your shit together otherwise I’m blowing the airport sky high!!”

Chambers was convicted and fined £1,000 on a charge of “sending a public electronic message that was grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character contrary to the Communications Act 2003”.

Chambers has argued that the conviction was “a steamroller to crack a nut”. He will be represented by crime and civil liberties barrister John Cooper QC and Sarah Przybylska.Lawyers for the Crown Prosecution Service argued: “The message was posted at a time when the potential threat to airport security was high. It was capable of being read by members of the airport staff and members of the public as a threat to airport safety and public safety.”

You got problems at home. Save your ideas and lectures where it is needed most.

In YummRika

Where more than 2 crore people (20 million) are either in prison, on parole, probation or facing prosecution. More people being prosecuted by the YummRikan State than the Rest of The World put together.

You want to feed stories about coolie-BPOs, code-coolies, snakes, snake-charmers, elephants, millions of gods, go ahead. Give your countrymen the trash they expect (most of the time) from their media.

Pakistan has become the private club of the perverse military, conspiring secret police, battling Taliban warlords, scheming politicians and a regressive mullah community. Each wants Pakistan for their own faction. What of the Common Pakistani?

Unless you save Pakistanis first. A Pakistani life is the cheapest in the world today. Every power-centre in Pakistan is waging war against Pakistanis.

To gain control and influence Pakistan for their own benefit.

Why should Pakistan be saved?

So that its sad military can continue with its fun and games?

To let mad mullahs drive Pakistanis into a regressive ditch?

Or, that the Taliban warlords can become modern clones of ancient raiders and looters like Mohammed Ghori or Mahmud of Ghazni?

Maybe for rich oligarchs to stay feudal, own the land, control the labour and economy for their private benefit?

At the mercy of rich politicians and bureaucrats who promise a modern state. A modern State that will be able to do deals with Western Masters. Deals that ‘benefit’ Pakistani – but not Pakistanis?

Pakistan’s intellectuals, of late have become very protective about social media. See the future of Pakistan in social media. Nothing less than the capacity to ‘save’ Pakistan.

Tied to the West, but is that helping the Common Pakistani? | October 29, 2009, by ZAHOOR; source & courtesy – paksir.blogspot.in | Click for image.

They claim

Social media needs to be protected because it is the only safe space for intellectual discussion in Pakistan.

Imagine that you are a person of independent thought in Pakistan. Now imagine further that you would like to discuss your thoughts with other people. Where can you go?

In the real world, the short answer is ‘nowhere’.

The liberation of the electronic press by General (retd) Pervez Musharraf changed everything. Prior to the advent of cable television, the entire English press in Pakistan probably had a combined readership of less than 100,000. The Urdu press probably accounted for a million people more. Compared with the population of the country, print circulation was nothing. On the other hand, the audience for cable television was in the tens of millions. Suddenly, people were no longer getting their news just from PTV but also from Geo and ARY.

At the same time, the liberation of the electronic press changed very little. The same talking heads that wrote columns in the press started fulminating on talk shows. At the end of the day, the number of people actually involved in public conversation remained very limited. If you weren’t a talk show host or a talk show guest, then your options for expressing or discussing opinions remained nil. It was all extremely parochial and elitist.

The arrival of social media is revolutionary. Back to the example I started with. The young independent thinker out in the virtual world, it’s a different story. As a cartoon in The New Yorker once put it, “On the Internet, no one knows you are a dog”.

Pakistan’s sharpest wit at this time is an anonymous individual who delivers one-liners under the name of “majorlyprofound”. If the good major were to present his one-liners before a physical audience, he would probably require medical attention. But (on) the internet, he is free to deliver his barbs.

More importantly, social media not only provides true freedom of speech but it also allows a public space where people with ideas can not only present their ideas to acclaim but also to criticism. In a country like Pakistan where decision-makers live their lives in cocoons of silence and sycophancy, this is incredibly important.

Obviously, social media is no panacea. Members of the social world are reasonably polite. The result is that people are not just talking to one another in the virtual world, they are getting to know one another as well.

Many people — even people who should know better — think of Facebook and Twitter as time wasting fripperies. That is why periodic efforts to ban either Facebook or Twitter are met normally with a shrug.

Unable to handle either Islam or Westernization, Pakistan’s leadership should think of the people more – and less of the State | Cartoon on March 7, 2004 by Zahoor; source & courtesy – paksir.blogspot.in | Click for image.

We all hear about how Pakistan is sinking into a Talibanised abyss of enforced ignorance. If we are to avoid that awful future, it is vital to preserve intellectual freedom. And at this point, there is nothing more essential to that quest than embracing and protecting social media.(via Saving Pakistan, one tweet at a time – The Express Tribune; original text edited for brevity. Linking text in parenthesis supplied).

Valmiki‘s political commentary is the true reason why Valmiki Ramayana lives – even some 4000-5000 years after it was first composed. The last 1200 years of religiofication that we have seen, in India, has removed the true political commentary that Indian classical texts contain.

1984

In his book 1984, for workers in the Records Department at the Ministry of Truth, doublethink means creating false public records.

Land of The Free

In the US, the land of the free and leader of the free world, has the maximum number of prisoners – mostly African Americans. They are still paying the price for demanding an end to slavery.

It is not surprising that US leads this list on Twitter records. Of course, this information could easily get degraded by Ministry Of Truth Law, which ensure that fewer requests can be made public by Twitter.

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